


The Role of A Fighter

by Tabbyluna



Category: Skylanders (Video Games)
Genre: Backstory, Coming of Age, Gen, Implied Neurodivergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26054524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabbyluna/pseuds/Tabbyluna
Summary: It's always difficult finding where you belong.





	The Role of A Fighter

**Author's Note:**

> And we're back! Took a break from uploading because of tests, but I'm on break now, so hopefully that means I can write more.

Most dreadwalkers were private, and Nightfall was no exception. Her culture valued introverts. As a result, a good dreadwalker was to be self-reliant, without much need for others. A good dreadwalker minded their own business. 

It was fine enough for dreadwalkers to sit in Fogshadow Tower all day, hiding away from the predators that lurked outside in the Poison Sea. But no one objected when she picked up an old hook her father had stored away - it was the gift he chose for himself when he came of age, back when he prided himself first and foremost on his skills as a competitive fighter - and went outside into the water, breathing mask strapped on tightly to her face, to hunt for predators. Just as long as she bothered no one, no one would bother her. And she never brought a fellow dreadwalker into her personal affairs, whether to beg for assistance or pick a fight. Therefore, they simply left her alone to pursue her own goals.

When she was about to come of age, she decided that she wanted a small vehicle for herself as her big gift, just to make travelling around more easy. Since it was for her big coming-of-age ceremony, her wish was granted. The dreadwalkers of Fogshadow all came together and got her a small watercraft for her to explore her surroundings with. When it was presented to her, in all its sleek glory, she named it the Sea Shadow. 

It was love at first sight. If she wasn’t busy exploring her surroundings with it, exploring what exactly it could do, she was in a small, previously unused room that was turned into a garage for her vehicle. There, she would spend hours hidden away, polishing it and working on it, trying to see what new modifications she could add to it. For a while, that vehicle was the love of her life, and she did not need anyone else. Not even, she had to admit to herself, her family.

Her mother was... alright. A respectable woman in the community, in that others greeted her and smiled at her as she walked by them, and she would always politely greet them back. She was a schoolteacher, and considered very pretty by dreadwalker standards. Thick, dark indigo tendrils of hair. Wide, round eyes as pale as the moon. Skin ebony black and shiny. A large, squarish snout. All traits which she had passed on to her daughter, all traits considered beautiful among their species. 

They got along fine when Nightfall was a child. Nightfall loved asking questions, and her mother liked answering them. But as she grew up, Nightfall continued asking questions, but they became more difficult questions. Questions which were harder to answer. No longer did she ask why the seas around them were black or why their hair was meant to be kept long. She now asked her mother why people were scared to leave the tower. Why most feared fights and confrontations. Why so many were so well-educated, but so scared of debate. 

She also began sharing her own opinions with her. Talking about others and their actions. Why she thought someone was spreading harm or in the wrong. Without much care for respectability or politeness, she spoke her mind. Unapologetically, uncensored. “She can be very vain,” she would tell her. Sometimes ‘vain’ was ‘selfish’, or ‘stupid’, or ‘naive’. But if she had a problem with someone, she saw nothing wrong with making it known.

Because of that, her mother grew to become stricter with her. Whenever she voiced out a harsh opinion on anyone, anything, her mother would shake her head at her in disapproval. “It’s not polite to say that,” she would say, “you won’t get very far in life if you continue being judgemental.”

It annoyed Nightfall whenever she called her judgemental. As if she wasn’t passing judgement on her own daughter every time she told her that. And half the time, she didn’t believe she was being judgemental at all. Usually, she would be relaying her point of view, talking about her honest opinion about another member of the community, pointing out that something someone was doing was annoying or idiotic.

But her mother would assume she was passing judgement on them. Always. No matter how many times Nightfall rephrased or how tactfully she tried to put it. The community valued privacy because the community valued peace. And unfortunately for them, Nightfall prided herself on her honesty, and her ability to speak her mind. 

It honestly didn’t matter that much to her. If she were to be honest (and she was great at being honest), being popular and fitting in was overrated. She was fine by herself, eating meals alone, spending time by herself outside the tower. It occasionally got lonely, but dreadwalkers culturally glorified loneliness. If one was lonely, they had a reason for being so. They were too argumentative, too odd, too disruptive for others to handle. As such, if someone was lonely, staying lonely was an honourable thing, since it meant that they were maintaining peace among the community.

Nightfall always found it ironic. She was lonesome, which was supposed to make her peaceful. But she dedicated a good portion of her time towards hunting down beasts, learning to fight. She was supposed to be honourable. But she never felt much glory covered in gore. Mother only told her to shower, father jokingly called her a little rough-and-tumble spunky gal.

Speaking of her father, he was a little more accepting of her speaking her mind. He apologised on her behalf whenever she said something she was not supposed to in front of others, but he never held it against her like her mother did. For the most part, he tried to explain why certain things she said were not considered appropriate. And Nightfall agreed with about half his explanations. But the other half, she couldn’t accept. Those other explanations simply felt like a way to keep the peace, maintain a sort of order, and that was the only purpose they served. Even if the order might need to be questioned.

It wasn’t even like she hated peace. Far from it. Alone in her Sea Shadow, that was her favourite place to be when she was younger, and the lack of overwhelming noises and pointless, chaotic chatter was a part of the reason why. Out in the water, just her and her vehicle? It was peaceful, and she consequently wished to spend most of her time there.

But she never got along much with dreadwalkers her age. Unlike a lot of them, she was pretty well-read. (It was pretty hard to ship books to Fogshadow Tower, as it sat in the middle of an ocean far away from any other town or city.) But a lack of knowledge never stopped anyone from developing opinions. And sometimes when she heard someone say something she disagreed with, she would get the urge to throw her hat in the ring and argue with them. Tell others why they were wrong, and why they should rethink some things.

She always tried to be patient. Keyword being try. Sometimes, it was a real struggle. With her saying the wrong words and using the wrong tone constantly. Eventually, she decided that if she was always focused on trying to be polite and courteous first, and honest second, she wouldn’t be able to properly express how wrong someone could potentially be. After all, not all stupidity was created equal. Some of it deserved more harshness than others.

Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with her. So she continued being alone. Dozens of conversations happened without her, many words exchanged between those within the community. Words she could have eavesdropped on and commented on, but she didn’t. Because after she learned that there was no place for her among them, she turned her attention towards the one true love of her life. The sea, her watercraft, and the continuous improvement of her skills as both a hunter and a mechanic.

Then the leviathan happened. She ran and warned them, they all evacuated, she stayed to fight it. It was a difficult battle. By the end of it, she remembered being so tired that she spent the next month in bed, healing from wounds and aches all over her body. Master Eon went to visit her when she was recovering. She still recalled the day with clarity. All wrapped up in bandages, laying in a cot in a medical tent. He sat next to her in a foldable chair, and talked to her about the Skylanders, how he hoped that she would consider joining them. 

Back then, she had only a bit of knowledge of the Skylanders. News did not travel quickly to her neck of the woods. But hearing him talk about them, their heroism, the adventure, it intrigued her. She told him that she would consider it, and then he left. Leaving her with a yellow slip of paper containing a phone number and an address, and a thick book of maps. A new one, where the pages were still fresh white, and the smell of a new book was still strong. It was, to her, very novel. Most of the books she grew up with had yellowed pages and cracked spines, and a new book such as the map book Master Eon left her with was interesting to her.

While she was recovering, she read that book. Looking at all the locations in Skylands printed in bright colours. She read the footnotes, the little stories and observations explorers had made. One name was continuously highlighted through that particular copy, and that was the name ‘Cali’. And that made her wonder what sort of significance she might have had with Master Eon. Her mind had plenty of time to dwell on that, and back then, she eventually came to the conclusion that perhaps Cali was a Skylander.

When she eventually joined, she was proven wrong. Cali turned out to merely be an ally without actually being a Skylander. But at the time, the idea that Skylanders had the opportunity to explore all of Skylands, to the point where some could be considered great explorers, planted a seed in her mind. As the days passed, and Nightfall lay alone in a tent, she stewed alone in her thoughts. And that stewing only helped that seed in her mind grow. It was daydreaming. She flipped through the pages of the book, looking at all the exotic locations the world had in store. Imagination expanded, bringing her to all those places while not moving an inch.

What was her place in her community? That question ended up on her mind after she flipped through the entire book. She technically wrangled monsters for them. That provided them with safety, and some meat if they were lucky. But she was talking with some of the leaders of the tribe earlier, and they were talking about installing security systems. They were making plans to rebuild the fortress, and rebuild it to be stronger. Better equipped to handle all the beasts that surrounded them.

“We need to know what sorts of beasts are out there. Which ones do you commonly encounter, and what are their known weaknesses?” One of the elected leaders asked her. At that moment in time, she wanted to lie a little, just because protecting them was, as she was beginning to realise, her place in the world. But at the same time, she couldn’t bear the thought of a monster hurting them all due to her own selfish desires. So she told them the truth to her best of her ability.

A private part of her still wished she bent the truth though, just so she still had that role to play. She did not like that private, selfish part of her, but the fact remained. Once they installed those security systems into the rebuilt tower, she no longer needed to fight. But if she did not need to fight, what could she do? She mulled over competitive fighting, just like her father did in his youth, then decided against it. It required someone who enjoyed being in the centre of attention, and Nightfall always felt more comfortable shrouding herself in shadow. Competitive fighters to dreadwalkers were performers. They were still expected to be quiet, stoic and independent off-stage, but in the ring, they could be as loud and boisterous as they wanted. They were expected to, in fact. And though there was a fight involved, the fact of the matter was that Nightfall saw herself as neither loud nor boisterous. 

Her thought process was not particularly linear. But at the end of the day, all that mattered was that by the time she had recovered from her injuries, she discovered several important things about herself. She was a fighter. She was a curious soul. She liked defending others, and it was a role she was actually good at playing. The dreadwalkers probably had no real need to have such a defender once they installed the security systems. And in her hands, in the form of a map book and a yellow piece of paper, she had a new potential road to embark on. A new place to belong.

Back then, she was new to the rest of Skylands. Young, inexperienced. There was no guarantee as to whether or not it was a risk worth taking. She would be far from home, leading a dangerous life. In terms of social skills, she was far from conventionally charming or charismatic. 

But at the same time, staying promised her nothing. She supposed she could just spend the rest of her days exploring the surrounding sea _without_ getting into fights. But, well…

It did feel nice fighting on behalf of others.

So that evening, she asked her father if she could borrow an old, mint green rotary phone he owned. His grandfather ordered it out of a catalogue that had somehow got packed in with an order of books. He told her that story all the time when she was younger, as a way of comforting her when she noted how she stood out from others. “He liked technology, and when he saw it, I guess it fascinated him.” It soon became a family heirloom, and it was brought with them when they evacuated. “I guess our family’s always been a little unconventional,” he would say. It made her feel better about herself as a kid. And in a weird way, it made her feel more sure about herself as she dialed the number written in blue cursive on the slip of paper.

“Skylanders Academy. How may I help you?” Came a quiet voice from the other side of the line. 

“Hey. Master Eon visited me about a month ago. He said something about an… opportunity.”

The next day, she packed up her things, promised her parents that she would write, and climbed into the Sea Shadow. The previous night, she had spent a whole hour mapping out the fastest possible route in order for her to go from the Poison Sea to the Academy. With a large backpack full of clothes, canned food, a few toiletries, and a blanket, she was prepared for the long journey. She wasn’t quite sure what the future held. But the minute she drove off, going further and further from her old home, her clan, she knew that there was no more going back. So all she could do was keep moving forward.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd been trying to explore more sides to Nightfall, because I got the feeling that I wrote her kind of flat in the past. Hope this works.


End file.
